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U.S. Department of Labor

Office of Inspector General

—Office of Audit 

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING 

ADMINISTRATION 

CONTROLS OVER THE RELEASE OF THE UI 

WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT NEED IMPROVEMENT 

Date Issued: January 2, 2014 

Report Number: 17-14-001-03-315 
 

U.S. Department of Labor 

Office of Inspector General 

Office of Audit 

BRIEFLY... 

Highlights of Report Number 17-14-001-03-315, 

issued to the Assistant Secretary for Employment 

and Training. 

WHY READ THE REPORT 

Within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the 

Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) 

Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) is 

responsible for producing the UI Weekly Claims 

Report (Claims Report) from data collected and 

reported by the states. This data is used by the 

government and the private sector as an economic 

indicator to describe and predict the state of the 

nation’s economy. Although no federal legislation 

or regulation requires ETA to embargo or release 

the Claims Report, ETA has elected to publish the 

Claims Report, and because the information 

contained in the Claims Report has the potential to 

move financial markets, ETA instituted policies to 

protect it via an embargo to ensure that no one 

individual or company would be advantaged by 

having access to it before the general public. ETA 

also allows pre-release access via a press lock-up 

to improve the accuracy and public understanding 

of the data when it’s first released. However, 

specialized computer equipment and the advent of 

algorithmic trading now allow market activity to be 

initiated from inside government lock-ups 

immediately upon the lifting of the embargo. 

WHY OIG CONDUCTED THE AUDIT 

ETA officials reported to the Office of Inspector 

General that ETA released the Claims Report one 

day early on August 8, 2012. The audit objective 

was to answer the following question: 

Does ETA adequately protect the Weekly UI 

Claims Report to ensure no one can gain an 

advantage by having access to the report before 

the general public? 

READ THE FULL REPORT 

To view the report, including the scope, 

methodology, and full agency response, go to: 

http://www.oig.dol.gov/public/reports/oa/2014/17-

14-001-03-315.pdf. 

January 2, 2014 

CONTROLS OVER THE RELEASE OF THE UI 

WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT NEED 

IMPROVEMENT 

WHAT OIG FOUND 

Although ETA corrected control deficiencies 

identified after it released the Claims Report 

prematurely, we found the policies and procedures 

ETA followed to protect the Claims Report during 

the embargo were either not documented in writing 

or, when written, were not designed to minimize 

the risk of unauthorized use or disclosure. ETA’s 

reliance on institutional knowledge of current 

control practices is not an adequate replacement 

for properly documented procedures, as this 

knowledge may be lost if experienced individuals 

leave the agency or are otherwise unavailable. 

In addition, our audit found that as ETA currently 

operates an optional press lock-up to provide news 

organizations pre-release access to the 

embargoed Claims Report, it unintentionally 

creates an unfair competitive advantage for certain 

news organizations and their clients. This is 

because even if news organizations adhere to the 

terms and conditions of the lock-up, their early 

access to the data positions them to potentially 

communicate this information to their clients, 

allowing them to trade on this data faster than the 

Department can post the information to its website 

and faster than the general public can access it 

once the embargo is lifted. 

WHAT OIG RECOMMENDED 

We made six recommendations to the Acting 

Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training 

to improve the controls over the release of the 

Claims Report that included eliminating the 

competitive advantages provided to news 

organizations inside the lock-up, or, absent a 

viable solution, consider discontinuing the use of 

the press lock-up. We made the same 

recommendation to the Commissioner of the 

Bureau of Labor Statistics since it also utilizes a 

lock-up to disseminate embargoed data (see 

Appendix D). 

Agency officials generally agreed with our 

recommendations. 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

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Controls Over Embargoed Data 

Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Table of Contents
 

Inspector General’s Report .......................................................................................... 1
 

Objective - Does ETA adequately protect the Weekly UI Claims Report to ensure 

no one can gain an advantage by having access to the report before the
 

general public?................................................................................................... 1
 

ETA corrected control deficiencies that led to a premature release of the Claims 

Report.................................................................................................................. 2
 

Policies and procedures for releasing the Claims Report were not adequately
 

documented. ....................................................................................................... 3
 

Confidentiality policy was not designed to adequately protect the Claims Report
 

against unauthorized use or disclosure........................................................... 4
 

Procedures for e-mailing the Claims Report were not designed to adequately
 

protect against unauthorized use or disclosure.............................................. 5
 

Procedures for posting the Claims Report were not designed to adequately
 

protect against unauthorized use or disclosure.............................................. 5
 

Allowing pre-release access to embargoed data provides a competitive advantage 

to certain news organizations and their clients............................................... 6
 

Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 10
 

Appendices.................................................................................................................. 13
 

Appendix A Background ..................................................................................... 15
 

Appendix B Objective, Scope, Methodology, and Criteria .................................. 17
 

Appendix C Acronyms and Abbreviations .......................................................... 19
 

Appendix D Memorandum to BLS ...................................................................... 21
 

Appendix E Agency Response to Draft Report................................................... 23
 

Appendix F Acknowledgements ......................................................................... 27
 

Controls Over Embargoed Data 

Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

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Controls Over Embargoed Data 

Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General 

Washington, D.C. 20210 

January 2, 2014 

Inspector General’s Report 

Eric Seleznow 

Acting Assistant Secretary 

for Employment and Training 

200 Constitution Avenue, NW 

Washington, D.C. 20210 

Employment and Training Administration (ETA) officials filed an incident report with the 

OIG that its Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) inadvertently violated an embargo 

of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) Weekly Claims Report (Claims Report) by posting 

the report to its website one day early. In response, we conducted an audit to answer 

the following question: 

Objective - Does ETA adequately protect the Weekly UI Claims Report to 

ensure no one can gain an advantage by having access to the report 

before the general public? 

OUI produces the UI Weekly Claims Report (Claims Report) from data collected and 

reported by the states to measure emerging unemployment claims (initial claims) and 

the number of persons claiming unemployment benefits (continued claims). This data is 

used by the government and the private sector as an economic indicator to describe 

and predict the state of the nation’s economy. Although no federal legislation or 

regulation requires ETA to embargo or release the Claims Report, because the 

information contained in the Claims Report has the potential to move financial markets, 

ETA has elected to publish the Claims Report, and because the information contained 

in the Claims Report has the potential to move financial markets, ETA instituted policies 

to protect the Claims Report via an embargo to ensure that no one individual or 

company would be advantaged by having access to it before the general public. The 

embargo is typically lifted every Thursday at 8:30 AM (Eastern Time) when ETA 

officially releases the report to the public. 

On August 8, 2012, ETA inadvertently released the Claims Report on the agency’s 

public website one day early. The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Public Affairs 

(OPA) learned of this incident when it received calls the next morning from press and 

financial organizations that the report was available before the scheduled release time. 

ETA investigated the claim and confirmed that the Claims Report was released 

prematurely. 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Results 

In summary, our audit confirmed that in response to the premature data release, ETA 

took immediate action and developed new procedures for testing the file delivery 

system used to post the Claims Report to ETA’s website, which was the cause of the 

early release. These new procedures significantly reduce the risk of this type of 

inadvertent disclosure by requiring the file delivery system to be tested at least two days 

before the Claims Report release date. However, we found that the policies and 

procedures ETA followed to protect the Claims Report during the embargo were either 

not documented in writing or, when written, were not designed to minimize the risk of 

unauthorized use or disclosure. This included: confidentiality agreements that did not 

define unauthorized use, were not required to be signed, and provided no 

consequences for non-compliance; e-mailing the embargoed Claims Report to OPA 

without protecting it through the use of encryption; and unclear and incomplete 

procedures for posting the Claims Report to the ETA website. 

Finally, we found as ETA currently operates an optional press lock-up to provide 

pre-release access to news organizations, it unintentionally creates an unfair 

competitive advantage for certain news organizations and their clients. 

A detailed discussion of our findings and recommendations follows: 

ETA corrected control deficiencies that led to a premature release of the Claims 

Report. 

ETA‘s lack of written policies and procedures for testing its file delivery system 

contributed to the premature release of embargoed data in August 2012 when the 

agency inadvertently posted the Claims Report on its website one day early. 

Specifically, ETA deviated from its normal practice and loaded the Claims Report into a 

queue (to be posted to the ETA website) the day before its scheduled release. That 

same evening, a programmer who was unaware the embargoed Claims Report was in 

the queue, tested the delivery system with a test file and inadvertently posted the 

embargoed report as well. 

This deviation from ETA’s normal practice occurred because the ETA-OUI Reports 

Team Lead was on vacation and ETA was holding its press lock-ups at the Department 

of Commerce while the DOL News Room was being renovated. During this press 

release, only one Reports Team member was available, and he had to attend the 

Thursday morning press lock-up at the Department of Commerce. Since he would not 

be able to follow the normal practice of loading the Claims Report on Thursday morning, 

he loaded it the night before so it would be automatically posted to the web while he 

was returning from the press lock-up. 

In response to this incident, ETA took immediate action and developed written testing 

procedures to address the causes of the early release. These new procedures require 

testing of the file delivery system to be done at least two days prior to the Claims Report 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

release date. The Reports Team member conducting the test must ensure the test 

process does not conflict with Reports Team activities or weekly postings. Additionally, 

any deviation from the testing and posting procedures requires the Reports Team Lead 

to notify the ETA-OUI Administrator and Deputy Administrator. These new procedures 

significantly reduce the risk of this type of inadvertent disclosure occurring again. 

Policies and procedures for releasing the Claims Report were not adequately 

documented. 

To protect the Claims Report from unauthorized use or disclosure during the embargo, 

ETA implemented policies and procedures around the release of the report. However, a 

number of the policies and procedures ETA followed during the Claims Report release 

process were not documented in writing. ETA officials stated that written policies and 

procedures were not necessary because everyone involved had been trained, 

performed these tasks every week, and knew what they were doing. 

The Government Accountability Office’s Standards for Internal Control in the Federal 

Government state that internal controls need to be clearly documented, and control 

activities should be effective and efficient in accomplishing the agency's control 

objectives. 

The release process for the Claims Report begins every Thursday afternoon when the 

Reports Team creates the template for the following week’s press release. 

Unemployment data is collected electronically from the states and maintained in a 

database. On the following Tuesday, the Reports Team tabulates the state UI data and 

applies seasonal adjustments. ETA-OUI management reviews the Claims Report and 

ETA usually finalizes it by close-of-business on that Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, the Reports Team briefs the OUI Administrator using hard copy 

materials. In addition, the Reports Team provides the embargoed Claims Report via 

encrypted e-mail to the Council of Economic Advisors, Federal Reserve Bank, the 

Office of the Chief Economist, and the Assistant Secretary for Employment and 

Training. Prior to close-of-business Wednesday, the Reports Team prepares hard copy 

documents and compact discs for the press lock-up in a physically secured room. 

On Thursday morning, a member of the Reports Team (usually the Lead) collects the 

hard copies and discs and attends the press lock-up conducted by OPA. Another 

Reports Team member remains in ETA’s office to load files for posting the press 

release to the ETA website and then e-mails the press release to OPA at 8:15 AM for 

loading onto the main DOL website. 

During this entire weekly process, ETA followed a number of practices to protect the 

Claims Report, such as limiting pre-release access, working on the Claims Report in a 

physically secure office, and isolating the data from the ETA network. However, ETA’s 

written documentation of this process and its data security practices only addressed 

securely e-mailing the embargoed Claims Report to pre-release recipients and posting 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

the press release to ETA’s website. ETA had no written policies or procedures for data 

collection, data handling, or report compilation and review. In addition, ETA officials 

stated that in the event of a security breach, they would immediately release the 

embargoed data to the public, but this policy was not documented in writing. 

This lack of documented controls regarding the weekly release process increased 

ETA’s risk of unauthorized use or disclosure of the Claims Report, such as the 

premature release that occurred in August 2012. Also, institutional knowledge of current 

control practices will be lost if experienced individuals leave the agency or are otherwise 

unavailable and ETA’s policies and procedures are not adequately documented. 

Confidentiality policy was not designed to adequately protect the Claims Report 

against unauthorized use or disclosure. 

ETA had a written confidentiality policy to protect the embargoed Claims Report from 

unauthorized use and disclosure. It stated that all authorized personnel with access to 

the Claims Report should sign a non-disclosure affidavit and keep the embargoed report 

confidential and secure until its public release. 

We identified several weaknesses in this policy that increased the risk of unauthorized 

use or disclosure to the Claims Report: 

•	 The policy stated – but did not actually require – that authorized personnel with 

pre-release access should sign a non-disclosure affidavit and agree to keep the 

Claims Report confidential and secure until its public release. The policy should 

require that the non-disclosure affidavit be signed. As presently written, it only 

suggests that it should be signed. 

•	 Although the policy purports to prevent unauthorized use and disclosure, it did 

not specially define unauthorized use. The non-disclosure affidavit stated that the 

Claims Report could be used to profit in financial markets, but did not actually 

contain language to prevent individuals from using the report for that purpose. 

Instead, the affidavit focused entirely on preventing “unauthorized disclosure.” 

Thus, the affidavit would not preclude an individual from using the Claims Report 

to profit without actually disclosing it. 

•	 The non-disclosure affidavit allowed for disclosure “by direction or with consent of 

the proper authority,” but the policy did not define who a “proper authority” was. 

•	 The policy did not identify any consequences of non-compliance. 

•	 The policy did not require annual recertification or refresher training that would 

serve as a reminder to authorized personnel of their responsibilities to protect the 

Claims Report. 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Additionally, ETA was unable to provide signed affidavits for 4 of 50 individuals who had 

potential access to the embargoed Claims Report. ETA officials stated that the 

4 missing affidavits were signed by the individuals at one point but may have been lost 

in an office move. Furthermore, ETA did not periodically review affidavits on file to 

ensure its records were accurate and current. 

Procedures for e-mailing the Claims Report were not designed to adequately 

protect against unauthorized use or disclosure. 

ETA drafted procedures for e-mailing the embargoed Claims Report to the Federal 

Reserve Bank, Council of Economic Advisors, and other pre-release recipients in an 

encrypted file; however, ETA could not finalize these procedures because the 

Department’s firewall blocked e-mail attachments encrypted with the Department’s 

encryption software. ETA was using a less robust method of encryption as a 

workaround because the firewall allowed those files to pass through. ETA officials said 

that they were working with Departmental information technology officials to resolve the 

issue. 

We identified additional weaknesses in these procedures that increased the risk of 

unauthorized use or disclosure to the Claims Report: 

•	 In order to e-mail the embargoed Claims Report to authorized personnel, the 

report was moved to a networked computer via a thumb drive, encrypted, and 

then e-mailed. However, because the data on the thumb drive was not 

encrypted, there was a risk of unauthorized disclosure if the thumb drive was lost 

or misplaced during this process. No technical constraints prevented ETA from 

encrypting the Claims Report prior to moving it to the networked computer. 

•	 The policy did not require that all e-mails containing embargoed data be sent in 

encrypted form. On Thursday mornings, ETA e-mailed a copy of the embargoed 

Claims Report to OPA for posting on the main DOL website, but this activity was 

not covered in ETA’s procedures. ETA’s practice was to send the embargoed 

Claims Report in an unencrypted e-mail even though the embargo had not yet 

been lifted. 

Procedures for posting the Claims Report were not designed to adequately 

protect against unauthorized use or disclosure. 

ETA had written procedures in place for testing and posting the Claims Report to ETA’s 

web site, including contingency procedures for manually posting the report should the 

automated process not function properly. However, we identified several weaknesses in 

these procedures that increased the risk of unauthorized use or disclosure of the Claims 

Report: 

•	 The requirement to ensure that testing of the Claims Report web posting process 

did not conflict with the actual weekly posting of the Claims Report was not listed 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

as a procedural step, increasing the risk that someone unfamiliar with the 

process would skip this critical step. 

•	 The “Comments” sections of the testing and posting procedures both stated that 

“it is critical to clear directories as required” to prevent files from being posted to 

the public website unintentionally. However, the procedures did not describe 

which directories would need to be cleared or when this action would be 

required. 

•	 The posting procedures differed from actual practice. Specifically, if the Claims 

Report had not been posted by the automated process, there was a second 

method of posting which involved hitting a “deploy” button. If that failed as well, 

there were procedures to post the file manually. However, the procedures as 

written did not cover the “deploy” button method of posting. 

•	 The Troubleshooting section stated that if the file was not displayed on the ETA 

web site, one should contact OUI Operations for support. This contradicted the 

actual procedure steps, which stated that if the file had not posted correctly, one 

should use the manual posting procedures. 

The weaknesses in ETA’s written policies and procedures occurred because ETA did 

not design them in a clear and comprehensive manner to ensure there would be no 

unauthorized use or disclosure of the Claims Report. In addition, ETA did not 

periodically review its affidavits, and therefore, was unaware that some were missing. 

Until ETA documents and strengthens its policies and procedures for its embargoed 

data reporting process and periodically reviewing its affidavits, ETA runs an increased 

risk of future incidents of unauthorized use or disclosure. 

Allowing pre-release access to embargoed data provides a competitive advantage 

to certain news organizations and their clients. 

As part of ETA’s reporting process for the Claims Report, ETA allows pre-release 

access to approved news organizations via a press lock-up. This pre-release access as 

ETA has currently implemented — which is not required — unintentionally creates an 

unfair competitive advantage for certain news organizations and their clients. 

Although no federal legislation or regulation required ETA to embargo or release the 

Claims Report, ETA has elected to publish the Claims Report, and because the data 

contained in the report was a “leading economic indicator” with the potential to move 

financial and monetary markets, ETA instituted policies to protect the Claims Report via 

an embargo to ensure that no one individual or company would be advantaged by 

having access to it before the general public. According to ETA, the data in the Claims 

Report is “a valuable commodity” which is “used by the Government and the private 

sector to describe and predict the state of the economy.” As part of its release process, 

ETA allowed pre-release access to approved news organizations thirty minutes prior to 

the official release time via a press lock-up run by OPA. Pre-release access is only 

granted for the purpose of fostering improved public understanding of the data when 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

they are first released and the accuracy of any initial news reports or commentary about 

the information. 

The Claims Report is not the only report that is released via a press lock-up. Press 

lock-ups are also used by other federal agencies to release principal federal economic 

indicators such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation Report 

and Consumer Price Index. 

DOL conducted its first press lock-ups in the mid-1980s when news organizations used 

landline telephones to call in their news stories regarding economic data released by 

the Department. Since then, the Department has struggled to ensure an equitable and 

timely release of its economic data to the public due to significant changes in 

technology and markets. Specifically, specialized computer equipment and the advent 

of algorithmic trading now allow market activity to be initiated from inside government 

lock-ups immediately upon the lifting of the embargo. 

According to OPA’s Senior Advisor of Communications and Public Affairs in 

Congressional testimony,1 “The rapid speed at which markets can integrate information 

has strengthened the financial incentive to violate the terms of pre-release access for 

the purpose of providing non-public data to paid subscribers ... Algorithmic trading 

introduces new security variables into a lock-up system not originally designed to guard 

against market-moving distributions that could be caused by the release of government 

data to certain traders just seconds before the rest of the general public. A few years 

ago, a few seconds here or there would not have had much of an impact. Today, 

fractions of a second can equate to millions or even billions of dollars in market 

movements.” 

Responding to concerns in 2011 that embargoed DOL-generated economic data may 

have been transmitted by news organizations prior to the lifting of the embargo, DOL 

entered into an agreement with Sandia National Laboratories to conduct a security 

assessment of DOL’s press lock-up facility. To address the deficiencies identified during 

that assessment, DOL implemented a new credentialing policy and began requiring 

news organizations to utilize DOL equipment or purchase equipment via a secure 

supply chain. DOL also began using its own telecommunication staff to oversee work 

performed by non-DOL personnel in communications closets, and began requiring 

reporters to surrender personal items prior to entering the lock-up facility. In November 

2012, Sandia concluded that the new security controls were sufficient defense against 

early release of the data during the embargo. However, the review by Sandia and the 

subsequent actions taken by the Department did not address an inherent vulnerability in 

conducting the press lock-ups. Specifically, even if news organizations adhere to the 

terms and conditions of the lock-up, their early access to the data positions them to 

potentially communicate this information to their clients allowing them to trade on this 

data faster than the Department can post the information to its website and the general 

public can access it once the embargo is lifted. 

1 Congressional testimony was provided before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 

June 6, 2012, regarding the integrity of DOL’s release of important national economic data to the American people. 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

News organizations that wanted to attend the press lock-up were required to sign an 

agreement and had to be approved by OPA before being allowed to participate. Due to 

the limited amount of space for journalists in the press lock-up and the Department’s 

goal in advancing the purpose of pre-release access, OPA will only approve news 

organizations that are primarily journalistic enterprises who prepare – and publish, 

broadcast, and/or post on the internet – time-sensitive summaries and analysis of DOL 

data, which are likely to contribute significantly to public understanding through the 

dissemination of original news, analysis, and/or opinion. OPA has denied organizations 

access to the lock-up when OPA determined the organizations were not primarily 

journalistic. 

Some approved news organizations provide news, analysis, and raw data feeds to paid 

subscribers. One of the news organizations that participates in the DOL press lock-up 

advertised that it could provide ultra-low latency2 feeds of machine readable news and 

economic data designed for algorithmic trading applications and identified DOL and 

other federal agencies in its advertised list of data sources. Another news organization 

that participates in the DOL press lock-up advertised that it could send data directly 

from government lock-ups so that privileged embargoed releases would be available 

immediately at release time. This same advertisement stated that ultra-fast data delivery 

is ensured by low latency technology infrastructure and direct access to government 

lock-ups. Because these news organizations have pre-release access, they are able to 

pre-load the data from the Claims Report for their data feeds/applications, allowing their 

clients to get this information faster than the general public, which has to wait to 

download the data after it gets posted to the DOL or ETA websites. As such, several 

news organizations that participate in the DOL press lock-up are able to profit from their 

presence in the lock-up by selling, to traders, high speed data feeds of economic data 

formatted for computerized algorithmic trading. 

OPA officials stated that news organizations in the press lock-up may have a 

competitive advantage because they have the ability to get their information out to their 

clients as soon as the embargo is lifted at 8:30 AM. In contrast, individuals and 

companies without pre-release access have to wait for the information to be posted to 

the ETA or DOL websites. Although both ETA and OPA begin to upload information to 

the public websites at 8:30 AM, the process can sometimes take up to five minutes to 

complete. Thus, those news organizations with pre-release access can get the data to 

their clients faster, enabling them to make market trading decisions sooner. Since mere 

fractions of a second can create significant competitive advantages, an inequity results 

by allowing pre-release access to select news organizations, and, derivatively, to their 

clients. The Wall Street Journal recently reported some clients of these news 

organizations have paid $375,000 a year to subscribe to their data feeds.3 

2 Latency refers to the time delay between the transmission of data and its subsequent receipt. The lower the latency,
 

the faster the data is transmitted.
 3 The Wall Street Journal, Monday, August 12, 2013, “Deutsche Borse’s News Service for Traders Draws Scrutiny of
 

Investigators” These data feeds include economic data released by DOL and other federal agencies as well as other
 

sources.
 

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While ETA is not a statistical agency and there is no federal legislation or regulation that 

specifically applies to the release of the Claims Report, OMB has issued guidance 

related to dissemination of statistical products released by federal statistical agencies. 

OMB Statistical Policy Directive (SPD) No. 4, states that statistical agencies must 

ensure that all users have equitable and timely access to data that are disseminated to 

the general public. Furthermore, there is no requirement in OMB statistical directives 

that agencies provide pre-release access to news organizations. 

Moreover, even if ETA and OPA were able to post the data on their websites precisely 

at 8:30 AM, the approved news organizations that are in the press lock-up, and their 

clients, would still have a competitive trading advantage because the news 

organizations in the lock-up are able to pre-load the data so it is ready to be transmitted 

to their clients precisely at 8:30 AM. In contrast, those outside the lock-up would first 

have to download the data at 8:30 AM before they could use it. Even if this “latency 

period” only took fractions of seconds, the trading advantage could be quite significant, 

as noted above.4 In addition to the trading advantage, approved news organizations that 

are in the press lock-up have a competitive advantage over individuals and other 

organizations not permitted in the lock-up because they are in position to market their 

data services for profit. 

With recent technological advances, government lock-ups have evolved to become as 

much about the speed at which valuable economic data can be distributed to investors 

after the embargo is lifted as it is about the accuracy of the initial reporting and 

commentary about the data. With respect to DOL’s lock-up, the intended purpose 

remains ensuring the accuracy of the initial commentary about DOL-generated 

economic data and that is the only reason pre-release access is provided to news 

organizations. However, serving that purpose must be weighed against the inequitable 

trading advantage that a lock-up potentially creates. 

The Department’s Senior Advisor of Communications and Public Affairs stated OPA’s 

mission is to protect the information until the embargo is lifted — what happens after 

that is not a concern of the Department and would be more properly addressed by the 

Securities and Exchange Commission or other market regulators. However, we do not 

believe it is acceptable for DOL to continue a process that facilitates inequities in the 

U.S. securities markets by giving a competitive advantage to news organizations 

present in the press lock-up and their clients. As the lock-up and lifting of the embargo 

presently work, this competitive advantage can be gained without violating the rules of 

the lock-up. 

Continuing the press lock-up also adds the risk that a news organization with prerelease access could break the embargo and use or disseminate the information prior to 

4 We have communicated with BLS, which uses similar lock-up procedures, and officials confirmed that this inherent 

advantage for those in the lock-up would exist even if data were posted on DOL’s websites simultaneously with the 

lifting of the embargo in the lock-up. 

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the official release time. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal,

5 federal law 

enforcement authorities are conducting a probe into how media companies transmit 

government data to investors, focusing on the Commerce, Labor, and Treasury 

Departments. For years the Federal Bureau of Investigation has observed suspicious 

trading activity in the fractions of seconds before the government releases economic 

data, such as employment numbers. The Wall Street Journal article went on to state: “In 

recent years, sophisticated investors have created software programs that automatically 

execute trades once fed market-moving data. Media firms, meantime, have earned new 

revenue by zapping the data from the government directly to clients.” 

While allowing pre-release access to the Claims Report might foster improved public 

understanding of the data, it can also enable news organizations and their clients to 

financially benefit from that early access and increase the risk that companies will break 

the embargo and use or release data early for profit. 

In order for ETA to ensure an equitable release of the Claims Report, it must eliminate 

any competitive advantages provided to news organizations in the lock-up and/or their 

clients. One potential solution could still allow ETA to utilize the press lock-up to provide 

pre-release access to news organization to write their news stories, and ask questions 

related to data; however, news organizations would not be able to release their stories 

or data until a sufficient amount of time after the Department has posted the data to its 

website. This would prevent news organizations and their clients from benefitting 

financially from pre-release access to DOL economic data. Or, since there is no federal 

legislation or regulation requiring ETA to embargo or release the Claims Report, ETA 

could discontinue its use of the press lock-ups for issuing the Claims Report and simply 

release it to the Department’s website. ETA could provide time for news organizations 

to ask questions related to the data after it is posted. This would have the added benefit 

of eliminating the risk that news organizations in the lock-up could break the embargo. 

There is precedent for this as the Conference Board, a research group that publishes 

market-moving economic data, announced it was ending its practice of providing the 

news media early access to its information because of concerns that doing so was 

creating an unlevel playing field in financial markets. 

Recommendations 

We recommend that the Acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training: 

1. In consultation with OMB and other federal agencies who provide pre-release 

access via press lock-ups, develop and implement a strategy to achieve an 

equitable release of the Claims Report and eliminate any competitive advantage 

that news organizations inside the lock-up and their clients may have; or, absent 

5 The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, “A Probe on Data Releases Is Revived” 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

10 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

a viable solution, consider discontinuing the use of the press lock-up to provide 

news organizations pre-release access to the Claims Report.

6 

2. Develop written policies and procedures for its Claims Report release process, 

including practices for data collection, report compilation and review, data 

security/handling, and breach handling. 

3. Ensure policies and procedures require embargoed data be encrypted prior to 

being removed from the physically secure office or e-mailed in electronic format. 

4. Strengthen ETA’s confidentiality policy to cover unauthorized use, require 

affidavits be signed by all personnel with pre-release access, define “proper 

authority,” identify consequences of non-compliance, and require annual 

recertification or refresher training. 

5. Develop policies and procedures to periodically review affidavits on file to ensure 

all individuals with potential access to embargoed data have signed an affidavit 

and ETA’s records are accurate and current. 

6. Strengthen procedures for testing and posting the Claims Report to address 

issues with the current procedures identified in this report. 

Management’s Response 

The Acting Assistant Secretary of ETA agreed with the all of the recommendations to 

improve the operating procedures associated with the release of the Claims Report. 

Furthermore, both the Acting Assistant Secretary of ETA and the Commissioner of the 

Bureau of Labor Statistics agreed that it is appropriate to consider ending the press 

lock-up for the Claims Report. The response noted that the Department had begun 

exploring the value of the press lock-up for the Claims Report prior to the release of this 

report and intends to continue its consideration of how best to disseminate the Claims 

Report to the public and to news organizations. 

The Acting Assistant Secretary of ETA and the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics also said that the report includes findings and recommendations that go 

beyond the audit of the original incident. Furthermore, they indicated they regretted that 

the report addressed the lock-up without attempting what they described as a “careful 

analysis” of the lock-up issue. Finally, the response noted at length the steps the 

Department has taken to strengthen security over the press lock-up. 

6 While the scope of this report was ETA, BLS uses similar lock-up procedures. The OIG issued a memorandum to 

BLS recommending it also address this issue as it relates to lock-ups conducted for pre-release access to BLS data. 

See Appendix D. 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

11 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

OIG’s Response 

We performed our audit work in accordance with Government Auditing Standards, 

which included analyzing all of the issues necessary to address our audit objective. 

Specifically, we identified the press lock-up issue as a potential risk to the Department 

in that the press lock-up, as currently operated, is potentially defeating the purpose of 

ETA’s embargo. We would be remiss to not bring this matter to management’s 

attention. It is now the responsibility of Departmental management to conduct a careful 

analysis to evaluate this risk and determine what actions it needs to take to address our 

recommendations. We also reviewed actions taken by the Department to strengthen 

security over the press lock-up, and did not take issue with these improvements to the 

security of the lock-up. However, none of the actions addressed the significant issue we 

identified that the press lock-up facilitates high-speed computerized trading in a manner 

that provides a competitive advantage to news organizations and their clients. 

Management’s response is located in Appendix E. 

We appreciate the cooperation and courtesies that ETA and OPA personnel extended 

to the Office of Inspector General during this audit. OIG personnel who made major 

contributions to this report are listed in Appendix F. 

Elliot P. Lewis 

Assistant Inspector General 

for Audit 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

12 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendices
 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

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U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix A 

Background 

The federal-state UI Program provides unemployment benefits to eligible workers who 

are unemployed through no fault of their own. Within DOL, ETA’s OUI is responsible for 

providing oversight and guidance for the UI Program, and each state/jurisdiction 

administers a separate UI program within guidelines established by federal law. 

OUI produces the Claims Report from data collected and reported by the states to 

measure emerging unemployment (initial claims) and the number of persons claiming 

unemployment benefits (continued claims). These data are used by government and the 

private sector as economic indicators to describe and predict the state of the nation’s 

economy. Because the Claims Report has the potential to move financial markets, ETA 

protects the Claims Report through an embargo to ensure that no one individual or 

company would be advantaged by having access to it before the general public. The 

embargo is typically lifted every Thursday at 8:30 AM (Eastern Time) when ETA 

officially releases the report to the public. 

Several authorized personnel from DOL, the Council of Economic Advisors and the 

Federal Reserve Bank receive the embargoed Claims Report one day prior to its official 

release. In addition, news organizations approved by OPA are provided early access to 

the Claims Report via a “press lock-up” thirty minutes before its release. This early 

access is intended to serve the general public by facilitating the news media’s ability to 

analyze and ask questions about the data as they prepare their news stories. Press 

lock-ups are also used by other federal agencies to release principal federal economic 

indicators such as the BLS Employment Situation Report and Consumer Price Index. 

OPA is responsible for coordinating and monitoring all DOL press lock-ups. 

In running the press lock-up, the Department has adopted the requirements of OMB 

SPD No. 4 which provides guidance on the purposes of pre-release data. SPD No. 4 

states: “The purpose of pre-release access is to foster improved public understanding 

of the data when they are first released and the accuracy of any initial commentary 

about the information.” The Department embraces the goal of maximizing the public’s 

access to informed discussions about the data when they are released by providing prerelease access for the press to final statistical products. 

On August 8, 2012, ETA violated its embargo of the Claims Report by inadvertently 

releasing it on the agency’s public website one day early. OPA learned of this incident 

when it received calls the next morning from press and financial organizations that the 

report was available before the scheduled release time. ETA investigated the claim, 

confirmed that the Claims Report was released prematurely, and filed an incident report 

in accordance with DOL policy. The OIG initiated this audit based on the incident. 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

15 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

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ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

16 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix B 

Objective, Scope, Methodology, and Criteria 

Objective 

Does ETA adequately protect the Weekly UI Claims Report to ensure no one can gain 

an advantage by having access to the report before the general public? 

Scope 

The audit covered ETA’s controls over the embargoed Claims Report at ETA’s National 

Office and DOL’s press lock-up room in Washington, D.C. 

We conducted fieldwork at the ETA and OPA offices in Washington, D.C. 

We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted 

government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the 

audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objective. We believe that the evidence 

obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our 

audit objective. 

Methodology 

To achieve our objective, we reviewed applicable federal and ETA criteria that covered 

the protection of the embargoed Claims Report; interviewed ETA and OPA officials to 

obtain a general understanding of how the Claims Report was compiled and released 

and how the embargoed report was protected; reviewed non-disclosure affidavits signed 

by individuals with potential access to the Claims Report to ensure they were 

appropriately authorized for that access; and interviewed an Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) official to understand how OMB’s statistical policy directives applied to 

the Claims Report. 

We examined ETA’s controls over the embargoed Claims Report by reviewing 

applicable federal and ETA criteria that covered the protection of the embargoed Claims 

Report; interviewing ETA and OPA officials to obtain a general understanding of how 

the Claims Report was compiled and released, and how the embargoed report was 

protected; reviewing non-disclosure affidavits signed by individuals with potential access 

to the Claims Report to ensure they were appropriately authorized for that access; and 

interviewing an OMB official to understand how OMB’s statistical policy directives 

applied to the Claims Report. 

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17 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Criteria 

No federal criteria govern the embargo of the Claims Report or require ETA to release 

the report to the public. ETA viewed the Claims Report as an administrative by-product 

of the UI system; however, because the data was a “leading economic indicator” that 

had the potential to move financial and monetary markets, ETA embargoed the report 

intending that no one individual or company would be advantaged by having access to 

the data before any other. 

OMB SPD No. 3, which provides guidance for the compilation, release, and evaluation 

of principle federal economic indicators, does not apply because the Claims Report has 

not been designated as a principal federal economic indicator by OMB. 

OMB does not have a specific definition for principle federal economic indicator. 

However, OMB SPD No. 3, states in part: 

Statistical series that are widely watched and heavily relied upon by 

government and the private sector as indicators of the current condition 

and direction of the economy must meet high standards of accuracy and 

reliability. Because such data series have significant commercial value, 

may affect the movement of commodity and financial markets, or may be 

taken as a measure of the impact of government policies, public release 

must be prompt and according to an established, publicly available 

schedule. 

OMB SPD No. 4, which provides guidance on the release and dissemination of 

statistical products by federal statistical agencies, does not apply because neither ETA 

nor OUI meet the definition of a federal statistical agency or unit. 

OMB SPD No. 4 defines a statistical agency as “...an organizational unit of the 

executive branch whose activities are predominantly the collection, compilation, 

processing, or analysis of information for statistical purposes. Statistical purpose means 

the description, estimation, or analysis of the characteristics of groups, customarily 

without identifying the persons, organizations, or individual data observations that 

comprise such groups, as well as researching, developing, implementing, maintaining, 

or evaluating methods, administrative or technical procedures, or information resources 

that support such purposes.” 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

18 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix C 

Acronyms and Abbreviations 

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics 

DOL Department of Labor 

ETA Employment and Training Administration 

OIG Office of Inspector General 

OUI Office of Unemployment Insurance 

OPA Office of Public Affairs 

OMB Office of Management and Budget 

SPD Statistical Policy Directive 

UI Unemployment Insurance 

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ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

20 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General 

Washington, DC. 20210 

January 2, 2014 

MEMORANDUM FOR: 

FROM: 

SUBJECT: 

ERICA L. GROSHEN 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

ELLIOT P. LEWIS 

Assistant Inspector General 

for Audit 

Pre-Release Access to Bureau of Labor 

Statistics Economic Data 

We issued the attached audit report, "Controls Over the Release of the Ul Weekly 

Claims Report Need Improvement," Report No. 17-14-001-03-315, to the Employment 

and Training Administration (ETA) on January 2, 2014. 

Our audit found that the optional press lock-up operated by ETA to provide news 

organizations pre-release access to the embargoed Unemployment Insurance Weekly 

Claims Report unintentionally creates an unfair competitive advantage for certain news 

organizations and their clients. Although news organizations adhere to the terms and 

conditions of the lock-up, their early access to the data positions them to potentially 

communicate this information to their clients who trade on this data faster than the 

Department can post the information to its website and the general public can access it 

once the embargo is lifted. 

Pre-release access of DOL-generated economic data is intended to serve the general 

public by ensuring that news reports about the data are accurate. To that end, the 

media are given access to the data in advance of the public release to facilitate their 

ability to analyze and ask questions about the data as they prepare their news stories. 

However, the intended purpose of ensuring accurate news reports must be weighed 

against the inequitable trading advantage that a lock-up can potentially create. Several 

news organizations that participate in the DOL press lock-up are able to profit from their 

presence in the lock-up by selling, to traders, high speed data feeds of economic data 

formatted for computerized algorithmic trading. Because these news organizations have 

pre-release access, they are able to pre-load the data from the Claims Report for their 

data feeds/applications, allowing their clients to get this information faster than the 

general public, which has to wait to download the data after it gets posted to the 

Department of Labor websites. 

Working for America's Workforce 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix D 

Memorandum to BLS 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

21 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

-2-

In our report, we recommend that ETA, in consultation with OMB and other federal 

agencies who provide pre-release access via press lock-ups, develop and implement a 

strategy to achieve an equitable release of the Claims Report and eliminate any 

competitive advantage that news organizations inside the lock-up and their clients may 

have; or, absent a viable solution, consider discontinuing the use of the press lock-up to 

provide news organizations pre-release access to the Claims Report. (Recommendation 

#1) 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also uses a press-lock up to provide pre-release 

access to Principal Federal Economic Indicators it publishes, such as the Employment 

Situation Report and the Consumer Price Index, as do other federal. Accordingly, we 

recommend that BLS also work with OMB, which provides guidance on pre-release 

access to final statistical products and other federal agencies who provide pre-release 

access via press lock-ups, to implement a strategy designed to eliminate any 

competitive advantage that news organizations present in the lock-up and/or their 

clients may have; or, absent a viable solution, consider discontinuing the use of the 

press lock-up that provides news organizations pre-release access. 

If you or your staff has any questions, please call Tracy M. Katz, Audit Director, at 

(202) 693-5161 . 

Attachment 

cc: Edward C. Hugler 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations 

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management 

John Galvin 

Deputy Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Daniel J. Lacey 

Associate Commissioner for Administration 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Patrick Seburn 

Division of Management Services 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

22 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor 

DEC 1 3 2UU 

MEMORANDUM FOR: 

FROM: 

SUBJECT: 

Assistant Secretary for 

Employment and Training 

Washington, D.C. 20210 

ELLIOT P. LEWIS 

Assistant Inspector General 

for Audit ~-, 

ERIC M. SELEZNOW . . , ,/\ff 

Acting Assistant Seer ' ' 

E~~::~:;~Y~7ti ommissioner 

ureau of Labor Statistics 

Audit of Controls Over the Release of the UI Weekly Claims 

Need Improvement, Draft Audit Report No. 17-13-002-03-315 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on your final draft report on controls associated 

with the release of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) weekly claims report. The Employment 

and Training Administration (ETA) appreciates the Office of Inspector General (OIG) 

conducting this audit at the request of former Assistant Secretary of Labor for ETA Jane Oates. 

Because the report includes findings and recommendations that go beyond an audit of the 

original incident, the Department's response is organized in two segments: a response to the 

primary findings and recommendations related to the release of the UI weekly claims report, 

and a response reflecting the shared position ofET A and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 

to the findings and recommendations related to press lock-ups. 

Recommendations 2..(): Release of the Ul Weekly Claims Report 

ETA appreciates the OIG's review of the operating procedures associated with release of the UI 

weekly claims report and concurs with the findings and recommendations - specifically 

recommendations 2 - 6. Implementation of the recommendations will further strengthen the 

security ofthe embargoed data. ETA has already taken steps to fully address recommendations 

2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and we will be happy to share the revised procedures and processes with the 

OIG. 

Recommendation 1: Press Lock-up Issues 

OIG's audit and recommendations depart from the objective of the original referral, which was 

initiated in response to the unintended public release on ETA's website of the Weekly UI 

Claims Report on August 8, 2012. Instead, the OIG defined the scope of the audit as the 

broader issue of whether ETA "adequately protect[s] the Weekly UI Claims Report to ensure 

no one can gain an advantage by having access to the report before the general public." The 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix E 

Agency Response to Draft Report 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

23 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

audit report properly addressed the premature data release and the steps ETA took to reduce the 

risk of a recurrence. However, it also focused on the complex policy question of whether 

technological advances provide an unfair advantage to the news organizations (including their 

subscribers) that participate in the Department's press lock-ups used by the Department and 

other federal agencies for the release of statistical data. The first recommendation in the report 

states that "[i]n consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), BLS and 

other federal agencies who provide pre-release access via press lock-ups, develop and 

implement a strategy to achieve an equitable release of the Claims Report and eliminate any 

competitive advantage that news organizations inside the lock-up and their clients may have; or 

discontinue the use of the press lock-up to provide news organizations pre-release access to the 

Claims Report." 

The Department agrees that issues surrounding the continued efficacy of the lock-up in light of 

both its underlying purposes and technological changes should be addressed. However, only 

through careful study of the actual practices within and outcomes of the Jock-up, including 

current security measures, real or threatened data breaches, competitive advantages achieved by 

those who participate in the lock-up, and the continuing journalistic values served by the lockup, will the Department and other federal agencies, including OMB, be able to make informed 

decisions about this important issue. We regret that the OIG Report addressed the lock-up 

without attempting such a careful analysis. 

Historically, the use of press lock-ups has been to promote accurate reporting of economic data 

and the role of the Department has been to ensure the data is secure until the embargo on the 

data is lifted. As the report notes, the Department has taken significant steps to improve its 

capacity to secure the data. 

In April of20Jl, the Department engaged Sandia National Laboratories to identify potential 

vulnerabilities in its print media lock-up facility, provide mitigation options for vulnerabilities 

identified, and assist in mitigation verification regarding any changes the Department decided 

to make to the lock-up. Sandia provided the Department a report and series of 

recommendations in August of201l. Based on these recommendations, the Department made 

a number of significant security enhancements to mitigate the premature release of embargoed 

data. 

Technology Change:'! 

The Department's policy permits credentialed news organizations to use a Department-owned 

system or provide their own computer equipment, though supply-chain safeguards prevent 

news organization staff from physically handling the desktop computers they have purchased 

for use in the lock-up facility. Production desktops are stored in locked boxes on-site; news 

organization staff access is limited to the monitor, mouse, keyboard, and external DVD drive. 

These combined measures enforce configuration management-a foundational element of 

information assurance policy. 

News organization communication lines now terminate in a telecommunications vault, and 

news organization Wide Area Network (WAN) equipment has been moved to a secure location 

2 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

24 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

in the Department data center (where no physical access is granted to news organization staff or 

contractors). All Local Area Network (LAN) equipment is now owned and controlled by the 

Department and located in a secured closet in the media lock-up facility. News organizations 

connect to their telecommunication lines through the Department's infrastructure. 

The Department increased its control over access to the Internet during the embargo period by 

installing physically and logically secured media converters located in a LAN closet, which is 

unavailable to media organization staff and contractors. The "black-boxes" previously used to 

perform this function now control telephones only. 

Physical Changes 

The print media lock-up facility was gutted and rebuilt with RF shielding in order to mitigate 

the potential use of transmitting devices inside the lock-up. Locked boxes- accessible to 

Department staff only - are installed at each news organization work station to secure news 

organization equipment. 

Department installed lockers and a metal detector in the hallway outside the media lock-up 

facility and now require media organization employees to deposit their personal belongings in a 

locker and submit to screening before entering the facility. The only items news organization 

staff is permitted to bring in the room are notebooks. 

According to Sandia's final acceptance testing of the enhancements, the Department made 

significant strides in improving the security posture of the media lock -up facility and 

implemented risk mitigation controls judged to be sufficient defense against identified threats. 

Policy Changes 

The Department's Office ofPublic Affairs (OPA), which administers lock-ups, also reevaluated its criteria for granting press credentials to the lock-up facilities, consistent with one 

of Sandia's recommendations. A committee of career employees reviewed credentials and 

issued new press badges based on whether organizations are primarily journalistic enterprises 

and publish time-sensitive reports that contribute significantly to the public understanding of 

economic and employment data. The committee established procedures that require every 

entrant into the lock-up facility to sign an embargo agreement, which includes provisions for 

expulsion or temporary suspension of news organizations and their personnel if the career staff 

believes a violation has taken place. 

The Department's lock-up facility is a model for the government and the Department is 

committed to continuous improvements that protect the integrity of federal data. Having said 

that, OPA acknowledges that press lock-ups can never be totally secure and operate on the 

honor system. 

Recommendation 1 in the report suggests that ETA should consult with OMB and other federal 

agencies that provide pre-release access to economic data via press lock-ups to develop and 

implement a strategy to achieve an equitable release of the UI weekly claims report so as to 

eliminate the potential for any competitive advantage by the news organizations participating in 

3 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

25 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

the lock-up. The footnote to this recommendation notes that the OIG has sent a memorandum 

to BLS recommending similar actions with regard to their press lock-ups. 

We agree with the OIG that it is appropriate to consider ending the Ul weekly claims press 

lock-up. In fact, well before the release of the OIG's report, the Department began exploring 

the value of the press lock-up for the UI weekly claims report and intends to continue its 

consideration of how best to disseminate the report to the public and to news organizations. 

The Department routinely explores opportunities to improve its data releases and ways to better 

explain the data and make it more user-friendly. We will also continue seeking ways to 

improve the presentation of the data. 

In addition, the Department will circulate the OIG Report to OMB and other federal agencies 

that provide pre-release access to Principal Federal Economic Indicators via press lock-ups as 

soon as the OIG publishes the Report in order to consider the OIG's parallel recommendation 

to BLS about continued use of the lock up. We will then consult with OMB and the statistical 

agencies to discuss the serious issues raised in the OIG's recommendation and consider options 

for moving forward. 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments. 

4 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

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26 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General 

Appendix F 

Acknowledgements 

Key contributors to this report were: Tracy Katz (Audit Director), Steve Sovich (Audit 

Manager), Brian Devaney, Grover Fowler, Jr., Rodelito Homoroc, Christine Allen, and 

David Hutner. 

ETA Controls Over Embargoed Data 

27 Report No. 17-14-001-03-315 
 

 

TO REPORT FRAUD, WASTE OR ABUSE, PLEASE CONTACT: 

Online: http://www.oig.dol.gov/hotlineform.htm 

Email: hotline@oig.dol.gov 

Telephone: 1-800-347-3756 

202-693-6999 

Fax: 202-693-7020 

Address: Office of Inspector General 

U.S. Department of Labor 

200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. 

Room S-5506 

Washington, D.C. 20210